Celebrity chef Jason Atherton has been slammed for charging customers up to £22 for a six-inch ‘gourmet’ hotdog at his new eaterie in Harrods.
Hotdogs by Three Darlings was recently opened by the restaurateur inside the famous London department store’s food hall and attracted fury from diners for offering three hotdogs for £19, £16 and £22.
The most expensive dog on the menu is David Gandy’s Battersea Banger, made of 70% suckler herd beef shoulder, aged beef fat, beef brisket, cheek, truffle mayonnaise and comte cheese.
Food critic Jay Rayner, who reviewed the establishment at the weekend, was one of the unhappy customers, writing on X: ‘A big name chef called Jason Atherton opens a hot dog stand at Harrods. I go. It’s truly awful. An insult to the very notion of hot dogs.’
After Jay gave his scornful review, others said they couldn’t believe a chef could charge so much for a classic street food item.
Shoppers can try three dogs for £55 or all five for an astonishing £85.
But it seems that those who are willing to pay these eye-watering sums will not taste the value of their money.
In his review, Mr Rayner said the dogs ‘have a weird, rough, grainy and very dry texture’, adding: ‘ The casing is wrinkled and hangs off them like an oversized old sock.
‘All this means the artful scribbles of mayo and ketchup, the dollops of caramelised onions and scrapings of cheese become an irrelevance.
‘There is a smear of a good baba ganoush under the souk dog and you do get a hit of truffle with Gandy’s offering. But when the key ingredient is so poor, who cares?’
After Mr Rayner published his review, a number of people took to social media to echo the comments made by the famous critic.
One person said on Instagram: ‘IKEA hotdog 85p.’, while another scoffed: ‘Hot dog in a bun, soft fried onions, squidge of Tom K and mustard, job done. How hard can it be to get it right?!’
A third said: ‘I’m sat here thinking about how many Costco hotdogs you could get for even just half the price of one of those.’
One joked about the fact the dogs are presented on wooden shelves, saying: ‘Funeral caskets for hotdogs. Did you give them a good send off?’
Another added: ‘Speaking of Iceland, they sell very good ‘Posh’ hot dogs, & Lidl sell a mean bratwurst.’
The eaterie was opened by Mr Atherton, who has been running restaurants for more than 20 years, three months ago.
The chef already has a slew of restaurants including the soon-to-open Three Darlings London neighbourhood bistro in Chelsea – inspired by his three daughters Keziah, Jemimah and Athena.
A description on the venue’s website reads: ‘Who makes the hottest dogs in town? Jason Atherton, that’s who.
‘With multiple Michelin stars under his belt, the British chef is putting the sizzle back into the humble classic to give us the haute dog.
‘Think less Coney Island, more Brompton Road.
‘Taking his three children’s heritage as inspiration, hence Three Darlings, Atherton takes us on a culinary tour of the world.’
have approached Mr Atherton for a comment.